Something from me to you

I can't believe I haven't posted this yet... definitely something that is important to me. Please feel free to share it with your family. Web page on Asian Americans and Liver Cancer.

Lord Stanley's Cup!

Another perk of working at Comcast Network Sales... getting to hang out with Lord Stanley's Cup. Too bad that the Sharks' dropped Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinals against the Oilers.

Remember the Alamo! Marisa and I in San Antonio...

Bai Ling & Me

Look, celebrity sighting! Here I am with the (in)famous Bai Ling. Picture taken at press conference for the 2006 Asian Excellence Awards.

If a tree falls...

Imagine waking up and finding your car looking like this. The uncharacteristic strong winds of Southern California hit again.

Laker Hater

In honor of the Lakers being down 2-1 in the NBA Finals... I'm wearing my USA Basketball Gary Payton jersey. Its a bit too big for me but I'm representing for my favorite Laker. Now I just need to get a Ben Wallace jersey. :)

Ah, redesign... how refreshing...

oh, got me a gmail account. ;)

still no gmail... darn it!

darn.. no gmail account.. fooey!

ah, blog account still exists, eh?

anyone still reading this thing?

visualize this: gilbert procrastinating, scratching head, wondering if he should update this blogger thing...

found everything. all is well. continue on with your days. blogs to return... maybe

crap... most of my blogs from last year-- and the china trip diary are gone. holy sh*t! someone help!

Breaking the 'Furd curse

hey kids... happy new year to everyone. my apologies for the lack of updates. guess i've been out and about having fun. hope this entry makes up for lost time...

today's wednesday but we're only a couple of days from the start of the nfl's second season, the playoffs. here's hoping that the 49ers beat the packers up in green bay. i'm not quite ready to stop watching football yet so i'm hoping that my niners can pull off the big win in wisconsin. last sunday was a glorious sports day for me. the niners crushed the saints, the raiders lost a heartbreaking loss and my cal bears hoops squad beat stanford for the first time in 5 years.

i've been following this cal this year with great ease because most of their games have been televised but it was a true pleasure to watch the stanford game in person. although the bears were not playing their best-- they had the fortitude to hang in the game and win it pulling away. i love teams that scrap... and more importantly-- teams that rebound. i attended the game with a bunch of friends and there was such a feeling of jubliation when we won that game. it may seem a bit silly but my friend cheryl and i ended up in the mob that stormed the field. (ok, for the sake of accuracy... our seats were up in the nosebleeds so we didn't technically storm the court. we sort of walked on during the madness.

i had a feeling that the bears would pull it out... i had a feeling that it would be a perfect sports day for me! =)

some more random thoughts...

what is the deal with the georgetown hoyas? a nationally ranked team with decades of tradition and history this team, known for their toughness and steel will, is now wearing baby blue-ish uniforms. i hope patrick ewing and john thompson weren't watching the hoyas getting creamed by ucla in their putrid unis....

who doesn't love macy gray? with a song titled, "give me all your loving, or i will kill you" she brings her artistry to new heights. *smile*

lastly, i was reading an issue of asian week earlier this month and i noticed a girl who looked familiar on the cover. (the cover story was about asian american sex providers/strippers) i finally realized that the girl on the cover was one of my floormates in the dorms. i thought she was a bit funky back then but the article reinforced my impresssions. it appears that she just quit working at the local strip club, crazy horse. i guess life takes all of us on different paths, eh?

piano stylings

i don't know about you guys but alicia keys' debut album sort of puts me to sleep... don't look now but she doesn't have the piano prodigy title to claim solely anymore... check out Vanessa Carlton, who reminds me a little of Michelle Branch. Her piano stylings are pretty refreshing though... and she's a classically trained ballet dancer.

makes me wish i had mtv2 all of the time...

hey peeps... happy holidays to everybody. i guess i'm a little late in warning all of you about the movie, ali. i don't think that the movie is going to suck or anything-- and i'm a big fan of ali... but i'm a big "will smith hater". remember, if you purchase his cds or go to see his movies you are just reinforcing his overinflated perception of himself. before you know it will smith will be president of the united states (or so he believes). anyways, i'll get on my will smith rant one of these days... trust me... it would get ugly too!

anyways, just wanted to pop on this bad boy to say goodbye to dick schaap, who was the bomb, and to wish you guys a safe new year. let's hope that i have a chance to update this before next tuesday!

more about my xmas gifts later! whoo hoo...

talk about a total tragedy... this is a sad story any way you look at it....

from the why didn't i think of that category...

Man allegedly impersonated Jeter, Nomar
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A con man impersonated baseball stars Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra in e-mails to get bats with their names, and then sold them for thousands of dollars to unsuspecting collectors on eBay, federal prosecutors alleged Tuesday.

Herbert John Derungs of San Francisco was indicted on six counts of mail and wire fraud and one count of sending threatening e-mails, charges that collectively carry up to 32 years in prison. He was being held without bail pending a court hearing Wednesday.

Derungs claimed to be Jeter and Garciaparra in e-mails to the Original Maple Bat Co. of Ottawa, according to a detailed affidavit filed by a postal inspector.

"I am interested in your product, due to the fact that Jose Canseco let me use it last year, and I liked it, although it was too heavy," read one e-mail in 2000 from "derekjeter222@hotmail.com," according to the affidavit.

"I will place an order for 50-60 for the 2001 season, because my contract with Louisville Slugger is up, and I am trying to get a feel of what's out there before I decide what bats to use next year. The sooner the better. Thanks Derek."

After those e-mails -- and follow-up phone calls purportedly from representatives of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox shortstops -- Original Maple sent 60 bats worth $3,319 to addresses in Lakewood, Wash., and Brisbane, Calif., the inspector said. The company never got any money for the bats, prosecutors allege.

Using multiple screen names, Derungs offered the bats on eBay and claimed they had been used in games by the players, prosecutors said. One victim allegedly traded $6,000, a Mark McGwire bat and a Rogers Hornsby bat for 15 of the Jeter and Garciaparra bats.

Derungs also allegedly sent threatening e-mails to a San Francisco Giants employee who turned down his application to be a tour guide at Pacific Bell Park because the position already was filled.

A phone call to Derungs' home for comment Tuesday afternoon was not returned.

just when i thought that i was getting the hang of this job... i get fired. nah, just joking. i am getting tested everyday though. yesterday i was in fremont trying to make some contact among the arab community and that was rough going. today i had a chance to meet with a taiwanese government agency and that was pretty difficult too.

i have a conversation partner in mandarin but i guess i'm not really well equipped to discuss business in chinese. i need to improve in a hurry though. it isn't that bad when you are speaking with someone who "prefers" to speak in chinese face-to-face because you can sort of fudge the stuff you don't understand or ask for an english translation.

but its a lot harder when you are on the phone with someone and they don't speak english at all. i just had one of those conversations and it was pretty rough. urgh. time to enroll in a chinese for business people course. i think i'm going to have a seminar at the next cable television conference-- key cable terms in chinese.... at least my officemates weren't around to hear me gagging on my chinese.